Burnout, underinvestment to blame for productivity slump, not working from home: Aussie academic

Overwork, burnout and underinvestment are the cause of falling productivity, not working from home, a workplace expert and academic says.

A major report released this week by the Productivity Commission has found working from home at least some of the time is more productive than being in the office full-time.

Multinational companies are mostly pulling the rank and file workers back into offices, while government agencies and academics work to assess the effectiveness of the pandemic-era work from home shift.

“There’s no evidence to suggest working from home is the root cause of these recent productivity challenges, which have been going since long before most people were working from home,” Swinburne University workplace expert John Hopkins said.

“Overwork, burnout, underinvestment, outdated processes, and cost of living pressures are likely factors behind poor productivity.”

During the federal election campaign, the Coalition quickly-abandoned a proposal for public servants to be back in offices five days a week.

The architect of that failed policy, Liberal Senator Jane Hume, said in the lead-up to the election: “It will be an expectation of a Dutton Liberal government that all members of the (Australian Public Service) work from the office five days a week.

But the proposal was so despised it was abandoned mid-campaign, and Senator Hume has since been dumped from Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s newly-minted shadow cabinet.

Released on Thursday, the Productivity Commission report finds arrangements where staff work from both the office and at home tend to benefit both productivity and job satisfaction.

“Allowing workers to work from home some days can improve worker satisfaction and allows people to benefit by avoiding the commute to work, meaning they have additional time for other purposes,” the commission finds.

Working from home reduces sick days, breaks and distractions “all of which are typically found to be beneficial for productivity”, it says in the report.

About 36 per cent of working Australians regularly do a shift from home; a tripling since before the pandemic.

Working from home is markedly better for women, the Productivity Commission finds, however younger workers miss out on face-to-face learning. The report points to falling business investment as the reason national productivity fell by 1.2 per cent in 2024.